Boy From Bihar Didn't 'Hack' Google; Misleading Claims Go Viral

Bihar's Ritu Raj Chowdhury has disovered and reported a potential bug to Google.

Fact-check |Misleading claims about a 19-year-old boy from Bihar hacking Google have gone viral.

(Photo: The Quint)

A social media post has gone viral claiming that a boy from Bihar called Ritu Raj Chowdhury had "hacked Google for 51 seconds" and was offered a job at the multinational company.

The claim goes on to say that the boy was offered a Rs 3.66 crore package and the government of India made a passport for him in two hours.

However, we found that the claims were not true. We found news reports talking about how Chowdhury reported a potential bug that he found in Google.

He claims that the bug had the potential to be exploited and compromise the security of Google's users. However, none of the news reports said anything about him hacking the platform and getting a job offer from the company.

We also found a LinkedIn post by Chowdhury where he dismissed the viral claims.

CLAIM

The viral posts had a long text message accompanied by a photograph of Chowdhury. The text message read, "Rituraj Chowdhury, is a 2nd year student of IIT Manipur in India, shook Google from head to toe last night ... he hacked Google for 51 seconds."

"...Google immediately gave a joining letter to the Returaj, giving a package worth 3.66 crore. Rituraj did not have a passport, Google talked to the Indian government and in just 2 hours he came home after making his passport. Returajs will travel to America today via private jet," the message said.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

We found that several such posts were shared on Facebook and Twitter, archives of some of which can be found here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

A hacking attempt on Google would be widely reported and would be a serious cause of concern for the company and its users. However, we could not find any news report talking about the platform being hacked.

We then conducted a keyword search for "Ritu Raj Chowdhury+Google" and found news reports talking about the boy.

As per a report, published on 3 February, in The Times of India, Chowdhury was a second year student of Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Manipur and came from Begusarai in Bihar.

The report said that Chowdhury had found a "potential bug that could have led hackers to successfully attack its[Google's] security."

It further stated that a platform on Google (bughunters.google.com) mentioned Chowdhury's name.

We checked the website and found Chowdhury's name in the "Honorable Mentions" category and said that he had reported a bug.

A link to the page can be found here.

(Source: Bughunters/Screenshot)

Bughunters, a platform on Google, was created in July 2021 for "bug hunters" to report issues and collaborate.

It became a place where security researchers involved with Google's Vulnerability Rewards Program (VRP) could report potential threats.

Chowdhury is one such "bug hunter" and would be eligible for a reward if he succeeded to escalate to the bug to the P0 level – the highest vulnerability – the TOI report added.

On the bughunter's platforms, we found Chowdhury's LinkedIn account. Upon going through the profile, we found Chowdhury's post about the Google acknowledging the report and he also shared news reports that talked about this.

In a more recent post, published on 6 February, Chowdhury clarified that the social media posts about him were false.

"I haven't got any package or job offer from Google or hacked anything...," the post said.

A link to the archive can be found here.

(Source: LinkedIn/Screenshot)

We have reached out to both Chowdhury and Google for a statement on the claims and this copy will be updated as and when we receive them.

It is clear that Chowdhury didn't hack Google nor was he offered a high-paying job by the company.

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